06-17-2015, 11:00 AM
(06-17-2015, 10:46 AM)fredtoast Wrote: The typical fredtoast response is about football not petty personal animosity.
Of course there have been a lot of older players signed by the Bengals that did not produce. But any NFL fan should understand that that is just a given. Every NFL team in the league signs older players. Almost every NFL player tries to hang on after he is washed up and every team in the league gives these guys a chance. Most of them don't amount to anything, but the Bengals have a history of getting solid production out of some of these guys.
Every NFL team has a history of getting solid production out of SOME older guys.
Do the Bengals do it at a higher rate than most? I'm not sure.
I think it's awesome that we turned around careers like Jones and Newman, but what about all of the others? The fact that we can't sit here and rattle off more names (outside of CB/S) makes me think it's not so much of a known history of them getting a lot out of older guys. If anything, I guess we could say they have a history of getting solid production out of older guys and reclamation projects in the secondary? I think that would fall more on positional coaching than anything though. Jones, Newman, Clements, Nelson (not old but turned his career around here), Crocker being able to come back and play at a decent level after sitting on his couch, J. Jo and Hall not being busts, and then late round picks like Iloka turning into excellent players. We don't really have that history at LB like we do in the secondary.
I don't want to be down on A.J. Hawk, but I don't see a track record at his position that makes me thrilled about a possible late career surge.
